


you’re a good brother

by flame_hotman



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Sibling Love, Toph Beifong and Zuko are Siblings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-17
Updated: 2021-03-17
Packaged: 2021-03-26 01:14:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,298
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30098043
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flame_hotman/pseuds/flame_hotman
Summary: Toph understands.She might be blind but she can see how Zuko is always scared, how he apologises too much and how he does his best to stay out of their way.Toph might be slightly mean to her friends, but she isn’t cruel. So she decides to take Zuko under her protection. He needs it; with Sweetness always on his case.
Relationships: Mai/Zuko (Avatar), Sokka/Suki (Avatar), Toph Beifong & Zuko
Comments: 6
Kudos: 143





	you’re a good brother

Toph understands.

She might be blind but she can see how Zuko is always scared, how he apologises too much and how he does his best to stay out of their way.

Toph might be slightly mean to her friends, but she isn’t cruel. So she decides to take Zuko under her protection. He needs it; with Sweetness always on his case. Seriously, he was just serving tea after dinner and Sugar Queen said “No thanks, I’d rather not die a painful death today. Is that what you were doing in Ba-Sing-Se too?”

With that thought in mind, the greatest earthbender stomped on the ground, using her seismic sense to find Sparky.

Sparky. That’s his new nickname and he’d better get used to it.

Aha! He was sitting in the large pai-sho room with his heartbeat going crazy, but again, that was his normal heartbeat.

“Hey Sparky!”

He jumped high. Like really high, almost as high as Twinkletoes jumps using his airbending.

“Uh, hi. Hi Toph. I wasn’t doing anything. I was just sitting here and- and thinking. About stuff. I wasn’t thinking about how to betray you.”

“Spirits, calm down. I’m not accusing you. Now skooch over.”

“Huh?”

“I said skooch over. Snoozles is all busy with his boomerang and it’s getting pretty annoying. Besides, I wanna be friends with you.”

“You do?” The hopefulness and surprise in his voice is clear and Toph doesn’t like it. Of course she wants to be friends with him. _Has he never had friends before_ she thinks.

But he shifts to his side without a complaint and she sits down beside him.

“Sparky?”

“I gave you a nickname.”

“Why?”

“Because I wanted to.” She doesn’t say that it’s something friends do even if she wants to.

“Did you ever have friends?” Toph doesn’t like beating around the bush, so she asks him outright.

“No.” His voice is pitifully quiet.

“Why? I think your crazy sister has two friends; so why not you?”

“I- My sister doesn’t have friends. They’re her servants. And I did have one friend, Mai.”

He knows how to dodge questions but he doesn’t know that Toph Beifong won’t let anyone dodge anything.

“You didn’t answer my question.”

His heartbeat goes haywire but he answers anyways. _Instant respect from me_ , she thinks.

“My father didn’t let me have friends because I was a weak firebender. According to him, Azula should have the most dangerous companions because she was the future of the Fire Nation.”

She can hear his smirk through his smug tone “But jokes on him. I’m dating Mai.”

“Mai? Is she the jumpy one?”

“No. She’s the one who uses knives. I know that she’ll never betray Azula because she’s afraid but it still feels like a small win.”

She knows how it feels. She felt that small triumph every-time she came home with dirtied robes after playing in the mud secretly all day.

“Well. I guess you have a new friend now.”

“You?”

“Me.”

——————

Toph Beifong can bend metal. She’s the first person to ever bend metal. But she can’t read.

Neither could Sparky when he was 13, it turns out.

“Why couldn’t you read? I’m blind but I know that you have two eyes.”

“I’m blind in my left eye. For a while, my right eye didn’t work either. My uncle taught me how to read using raised characters.”

“Can- can you teach me?”

They spend the whole day with their fingertips stuck to scrolls. She grins because it feels nice to ~~spend time with him~~ read plays.

“You’re a theatre nerd!”

“My mom liked theatre. Whenever we went to Ember Island, she’d take us to theatre.”

“Your mom sounds nice. Where is she now?”

“She assassinated my grandfather in exchange for my life.”

What?

_What?_

She didn’t have the best family, but even she was sure that grandparents weren’t supposed to kill their grandkids.

After that, Sparky had the audacity to say, “Don’t worry. My family’s attempted to kill me many times.”

It was fine. And if the earth shaked slightly, then it wasn’t her fault.

———

It takes her till nightfall to register that he couldn’t be blind in one eye without some sort of injury. Knowing Sparky, it was probably a cool tale. Humming to herself, she made way to Sparky’s room, ignoring Sugar-Queen’s warnings about how he’s a big bad firebender.

He’s not a big bad firebender. He’s her friend. Toph knows this.

“Hey Toph.”

“Sparky, how come you’re blind in one eye?”

His answer comes short and his heartbeat becomes so fast that she’s worried about her ~~best~~ friend.

“I got burned when I was 13.”

The answer makes her heart skip a beat. Firebenders don’t burn easily. Very few people can burn the Prince of The Fire Nation.

She hopes that she’s wrong, but she knows that she’s not.

“The last thing I saw out of left eye was my father smiling. That last thing I heard out of my left ear was Azula laughing.”

Even though his heart said otherwise, his voice was way too calm. _I hate your family_ , she thinks. She knows that his reply would be _I hate them too_.

She nods and walks away. She could ask why would he want to go back home but she knows the answer. Because its _home_ , amd no matter what, you want to go back home. She wants to go back home someday too.

———

After Sparky and Snoozles break Chief Hakoda and Snoozles’ girlfriend out of jail, he started spending even more time with her.

Not that she’s complaining! But- she’s worried about him. While earlier he had made enough progress to come and sit with them while eating dinner, now he barely comes out of his room other than teaching Aang firebending.

She follows him after he finishes lessons and it turns out that he was sitting with his head in his hands on the edge of the Eastern pillar. _No wonder nobody found him_ , she thinks, _I wouldn’t have been able to come here unless I was using my earthbending._

“Hey Sparky, whatcha moping about?”

“Mai.”

“Seriously you’re missing your girlfriend-“

“She betrayed Azula.”

“Oh.”

“She’s probably dead.”

Toph has never felt romantic love because she’s 12. But she did have a crush on Snoozles; and she feels bad for him. Really bad.

“I’m sorry. It was good that she betrayed your sister for us, but I understand. Also, she’s not dead. I know that.”

He barely raises his head but she speaks before he can.

“Listen to me, from what everybody said about her, and what you said about her, I know that she’s alive.”

“That- that does help Toph. Thank you.”

———

Toph Beifong is extremely angry.

How dare Crazy Blue try to kill her _brother_? She might want to be an only child, but Toph Beifong doesn’t.

Sparky seems to be sad. When Twinkletoes asks him why, he says that he wasn’t a good brother. She’s regretful too, but for different reasons.

Later, when they make a temporary camp, Toph volunteers for lookout alongside Sparky. She got some things she needs to say to _her_ elder brother.

“Sparky.”

“Hey- you look terrifying.”

“Thanks. I need to say something.”

“Sure.”

“You’re no-”

She has faced countless Dai-Li agents, Crazy Blue and her ~~friends~~ servants, Fire Nation soldiers and she was never scared. But she’s nervous now. Her own heartbeat seems to be amplified beyond what she can take and suddenly she feels small.

“Hmm?”

“You’re not a bad brother.”

“But Azula-”

“I wasn’t talking about her.”

She liked being blind, but at that moment she wished that she could see Sparky’s smile.

Never mind, she can feel his smile when he hugs her.

He’s not a big, bad firebender; he’s her elder brother.


End file.
